The number of emails being opened on mobile devices is increasing day by day. Even Litmus agrees, proving for a fact that emails must have a mobile-friendly approach. More than 60% of emails are opened on mobile devices. Thus designers must opt for mobile-friendly email template design.
The fact that smartphones are easy to access and remain with users constantly, there is no harm in getting your required conversion from mobile phone users. As more and more service providers are getting serious about designing mobile-friendly email templates, here is a detailed description of tips that can help in accomplishing the design effectively.
1.Precise subject lines
When you are designing for mobile, one thing you need to keep in the mind is the length of the subject lines. It needs to be within 40 characters as mobile screens cannot accommodate more characters than the limit stated here. Keeping the subject line under this character limit ensures that your users will get the most important message, which may attract them to read the email further. As it is your first chance to grab your users’ attention, try to use engaging subject lines.
2.Engaging CTA
Call to actions do play an exceptional role in accomplishing desktop email template designing, and they are sure to play their part well for smartphones also. The effectiveness of email templates is important only when the content is engaging and user-centric at the same time. While developing CTAs, try using soothing colors so that it does not interrupt the browsing experience of the users. While designing for mobile, keep in mind that it must be large enough for users to tap it easily as fingers cannot act as the pointers of the mouse. If users are facing difficulty in tapping the CTA, there is complete possibility they won’t bother to check it further.
3. Consider using preheader text
There is more room allocated for preheaders than subject lines when you view your inbox from mobile phones. Thus, it is an ideal practice to consider preheader text. In order to get your users’ attention immediately, optimize your headers to get displayed well over the mobile devices. Placing your preheader text before the subject line will instantly get users’ attention. Remember, there is a small space for users to view the message on their smartphones; hence, you need to optimize the elements well before sending the emails.
4.Use a single column template
Mobile screens are small spaces as compared to the desktop and this makes it very clear that single column template will suit the requirement the best. In a case with the multi-column layout, let’s say 2 columns or more, the users would need to zoom in on the screen to see the details. This would get a bit difficult for the users to navigate through the column that is obviously not going to make it a unique browsing experience for them. Difficulty in navigating through the content or the call to action of your email will make a bad impression on the users. Thus, the key is to invest your time in drafting and using a single column template.
5.Display small images
The images that you are going to use for your mobile-friendly email template should adjust appropriately over the screen. Small images decrease the load time as well as the bandwidth making it easy for the emails to load easily. Using responsive techniques is also a way to help those images load well over the mobile devices. Compressing images is another way to help them load easily over the smartphones.
6.Actionable call to action
Call to actions must be such that it prompts the readers to take an action. The action generally leads the users to tap the CTA button so that they can take the action. While designing for mobile, one thing that must be kept in mind is that the call to action needs to be tappable on the small screen of the mobile device. As fingers do not have pointers like a mouse, details must be designed in order to let the users tap the CTA with utmost ease.
7.Test on multiple devices
Just creating the email template is not enough. It is also important to test your email template for multiple devices. This testing ensures that the email template performs really well on a variety of devices. As you are not sure about the kind of devices the users have and thus, it is worthwhile to make your email template compatible with a range of devices. Designing the template with responsive technique will help in this regard.
Conclusion
Mobile-friendly email templates provide an extended way to reach more clients. This is an advantage for the business as more clients are sure to bring in more business and thus more profit. While all these considerations are important to keep in mind, the one that is the most important is to do the testing to correct the flaws.
Author bio
Being a working professional at EmailChopper, Andrew Hudson has exceptional expertise in creating email templates. He keeps on finding new techniques for creating email templates and shares them with users with engaging write-ups.